Pre-hung door mounting means



Jan. 17, 1967 I E. BRAND PRE-HUNG DOOR MOUNTING MEANS Filed Feb, 5, 1965INVENTOR. F 'g 4 EUGENE L. BRAND Fig. 5

MEN/2M ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,298,510 PRE-HUNG DOOR MOUNTINGMEANS Eugene L. Brand, Clinton, Ohio, assignor to Alsco, Inc., Akron,Ohio, a corporation of Delaware Filed Feb. 5, 19.65, Ser. No. 430,654 2Claims. (Cl. 206-60) This invention relates to pre-hung doors and, moreparticularly, to means for mounting a door within a door jamb frame sothat the door frame is spaced a predetermined distance from the doorjamb members and so that the door frame and door jamb members may beeasily installed as a unit.

According to conventional manufacturing and installation techniques,aluminum storm doors are assembled within and hinged to their door jambsor Z-bars by the manufacturer so that the entire unit may be easilyinstalled on the door jambs and lintel of a building structure. The doorframe is fastened to its Z-bar or door jamb and suitable spacers orshims are inserted between the Z-bars and door frame to insure theproper clearance between these members when they are installed.

According to some of these prior art practices, screws or rivets areprovided to join the Z-bar to the door frame in such a way that thescrew or rivet may be severed after the Z-bar is installed on the wooddoor frame. A spacer is employed which is notched to surround the screwor rivet and which is adapted to sever the screw or rivet when tappedwith a hammer. This arrangement is unsatisfactory for at least fourreasons. Firstly, the spacer must project from the frame, and thispresents problems in stacking and shipping the product, because theprojections can snag on and mar other door frames. Secondly, in order togive proper spacing support, the spacer must extend across the thicknessof the door frame, and therefore almost to the stop flange of the Z-bar.Its cutting stroke (which is the remaining distance to the stop flange)is therefore extremely short. This short stroke can make it diflicult tosever the rivet or screw without damaging the stop flange. Thirdly,since the spacer must shear the screw or rivet, hardened steel or otherrelatively costly material must be employed for each spacer element.Fourthly, the spacer cannot be simply locked against sliding movementacross the door edges, since it must be able to so move in order tosever the rivet or screw.

It is an object of this invention to provide inexpensive spacer elements(e.g., extruded plastic or aluminum shapes cut to short lengths) thatextend across the entire width of the door frame to separate the doorframe from its Z-bar and to provide such spacer elements in combinationwith attaching means between the door frame and the Z-bar in .such a waythat the attaching means may be released by a long-stroking severingtool.

It is a further object of this invention to provide a spacer between adoor frame and its Z-bar that will not slide out of its space before theattaching means is severed.

These and other objects, features, and advantages of the invention willbecome apparent and more fully understood from the following detaileddescription of the invention and from the accompanying drawings, inwhich:

FIG. 1 is an elevational view of a pre-hung door and its Z-bars.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged, fragmentary, cross sectional view of a portion ofthe Z-bar and door frame illustrated in FIG. 1, the plane of the sectionbeing indicated by the line 22 in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary, perspective, exploded view of a portion of adoor frame and its Z-bar, showing a 3,298,510 Patented Jan. 17, 1967 lCCspacer element and fastening means according to this invention.

FIG. 4 is an elevational view of a suitable severing means.

FIG. 5 is an ele-vational view of the spacer means according to thisinvention.

Referring now to the drawings, a pre-hung door 10 is illustrated. Thepre-hung door 10 includes side frame members 11 and 12 and a top framemember 13. The frame members 11-13 may be aluminum extrusions and mayhave identical cross sections.

A Z-bar unit comprising side Z-bars 14 and 15 and a head Z-bar 16. arerespectively associated with frame members 11-13. The frame member 11 ishinged to the side Z-bar 14. The Z-bars 14-16 are fixed to the framemembers 11-13 by rivets 17. Spacer members 18 are provided between thedoor frame members 11-13 and the Z -bars 14-16. As is indicated in FIG.1, it is desirable to provide a spacer member 18 in closely spacedadjacency to each rivet 17 so that the spacer element 18 is laterallyoffset from the axis of its adjacent rivet 17. It is desirable to placethe spacer members 18 above each rivet 17 between the side frame members11 and 12 and their Z-bars 14 and 15 so that the spacer members 18cannot drop away from their associated rivets prior to or duringinstallation of the door 10.

Referring now to FIGS. 2 and 3, the frame member 12 comprises faces 19and 20 and a connecting web 21. The faces 19 and 20 extend outwardlybeyond the connecting web 21 to flanges 22 and 23. It should beappreciated that each door frame member 11-13 may be similarlyconstructed.

The Z-bar 15 comprises a first face flange or leg 24 which is screwed tothe outer face of a wood door frame (not shown) by a screw 25. The Z-bar15 also includes a second leg 26 which extends substantiallyperpendicular to the leg 24 and lies against an inside surface of thedoor jamb or lintel. A stop flange 27 is provided at one end of the leg26 and the stop flange 27 retains a weather seal strip 28. Each Z-bar14-16 may be similarly constructed.

Before the door frame member 12 is riveted to the Z-bar 15, a spacermember 18 is inserted between these members. The spacer member 18comprises a plate having a width about equal to the distance between thefaces 19 and 20 so that the plate does not project beyond these faces toany significant extent. The spacer member 18 includes recessed edgeportions 29 and 30 which cooperate with the flanges 22 and 23 to insurethat the spacer member 18 will not be moved from the positionillustrated in FIG. 2.

To prevent them from sliding along the surfaces 22 and 23, some or allof the several members 18 may be taped to the door frame 12, althoughthis is not necessary where the spacer members are sufliciently tightlyclam ed by their associated rivets.

After the door frame member 11 has been hinged to the Z-bar 14 and thespacer members 18 have been applied while they are permanently ortemporarily held in position by any suitable arrangement, the rivets 17are applied. The resulting pre-hung door assembly may be easily shippedand installed with the proper spacing between the door frame and theZ-bars.

After the pre-hung door assembly has been installed on the wood doorframe opening, the fasteners are released. For this purpose, a severingtool, such as tool 31 illustrated in FIG. 4, is provided. It may have asharpedged V-notch 32 at its working end, or the V- notch may beeliminated and the working endof the tool 31 may be simply sharpened. Inuse, the tool is inserted in the space between the Z-bar and the doorframe so that a rivet 17 is engaged by the notch 32 or by the sharpenedworking end of the tool. The other end of the tool is then struck with ahammer to shear the rivet 17. After all of the rivets 17 have beensheared, the door may be opened and the spacers 18 may be removed.

The invention is not restricted to the slavish imitation of each andevery one of the details described above, which have been set forthmerely by way of example with the intent of most clearly setting forththe teaching of the invention. Obviously, devices may be provided whichchange, eliminate, or add certain specific details without departingfrom the invention.

What is claimed is:

1. In a pre-hung door assembly having side and top frame members andside and top Z-bar members fixed to and spaced from said frame members,the improvement comprising severable fastening means extending intension between a frame member and a Z-bar member and holding themtogether, and a removable spacer means retained between said frame andZ-bar members and laterally offset from the axis of said fastening meansand extending across the width of the frame member, whereby saidfastening means may be severed after the door is mounted by a relativelylong longitudinal stroke of a severing tool extended from the door frontstraight in to the fastening means.

2. In a pre-hung door assembly having side and top frame members andside and top Z-bar members fixed to and spaced from said frame members,the, improvement comprising severable fastening means extending intension between a frame member and a Z-bar member and holding themtogether, and a removable spacer means retained between said frame andZ-bar members and to one side of said fastening means and extendingacross the width of the frame member, whereby said fastening means maybe severed after the door is mounted by a relatively long longitudinalstroke of a severing tool extended from the door front straight in tothe fastening means.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,216,066 11/1965Hadacek 20-16 FOREIGN PATENTS 519,845 12/1955 Canada.

LOUIS G. MANCENE, Primary Examiner. KENNETH DOWNEY, Examiner.

W. T. DIXSON, JR., Assistant Examiner.

1. IN A PRE-HUNG DOOR ASSEMBLY HAVING SIDE AND TOP FRAME MEMBERS ANDSIDE AND TOP Z-BAR MEMBERS FIXED TO AND SPACED FROM SAID FRAME MEMBERS,THE IMPROVEMENT COMPRISING SEVERABLE FASTENING MEANS EXTENDING INTENSION BETWEEN A FRAME MEMBER AND A Z-BAR MEMBER AND HOLDING THEMTOGETHER, AND A REMOVABLE SPACER MEANS RETAINED BETWEEN SAID FRAME ANDZ-BAR MEMBERS AND LATERALLY OFFSET FROM THE AXIS OF SAID FASTENING MEANSAND EXTENDING ACROSS THE WIDTH OF THE FRAME MEMBER, WHEREBY SAIDFASTENING MEANS MAY BE SEVERED AFTER THE DOOR IS MOUNTED BY A RELATIVELYLONG LONGITUDINAL STROKE OF A SEVERING TOOL EXTENDED FROM THE DOOR FRONTSTRAIGHT IN TO THE FASTENING MEANS.